168 Transactions. 



montane and subalpine belts, the ecological conditions are antagonistic, 

 and forest occurs only in specially well-sheltered situations. Here only the 

 three small pieces of forest situated in the gullies at and near the base of 

 Mount Sugarloaf are dealt with. 



The association belongs to the mountain southern-beech {Nothofagus 

 cliffortioides) formation, a plant-community of wide distribution in the 

 high mountains of both the North and South Islands. At Cass the associ- 

 ation, so far as its undergrowth is concerned, was probably always far from 

 dense, but now, through sheep having sheltered for many years in the 

 forest, undergrowth in no few places is wanting. But the plant -covering 

 of certain spots gives a fair clue to the primitive physiognomy of the forest 

 interior, with its slender tree-trunks and moss-covered floor occupied by 

 numerous Nothofagus seedlings, small fronds of Blechnum penna marina, 

 and erect or straggling bushes of Coprosma parviflora, C. microcarpa, 

 Aristotelia fruticosa, Clematis marata as a ground-plant, and Riibus sub- 

 pauper atus. 



The sole tree is the mountain southern-beech, Nothofagus cliffortioides. 

 Parasitic on it are the woody hemi-parasites ElytrantJie flavida and E. 

 tetrapetala. The forest-floor is usually dry, and consists on the surface of 

 a brown humus held together by numerous beech-rootlets, while beneath is 

 the usual clay of the locality. 



On the margins of the streams the vegetation, as might be supposed, 

 is much richer than elsewhere. The following is a list of the species noted 

 near such streams : Blechnum penna marina, B. capense var., Polystichum 

 vestitum, Lycopodium Selago, Carex dissita var., Corysanthes macrantha, 

 Urtica incisa, Cardamine heterophylla var., Acaena Sanguisorhae var. piisilla, 

 Rubus sifhpauperatus, R. schmidelioides var. coloratus, Aristotelia fruti- 

 cosa, Hymenanthera dentata var. alpina, Epilohinm rotundifolium, Galium 

 wyihrosum, Coprosma parviflora, Veronica salicifolia var. communis, V. 

 Traversii var., Erechtites glabrescens. 



(2.) Shrubland. 



By "shrubland" is here meant those associations where the shrub-form 

 dominates. It difiers greatly in its physiognomy and physiological cha- 

 racters according to the degree of closeness at which the component shrubs 

 occur and their growth-forms. Where the shrubs as a whole do not touch 

 one another, but stand as small clumps or single plants dotted about 

 here and there, the association may be termed " open shrubland." Where 

 the shrubs grow closely, but do not form dense entanglements, the term 

 " thicket " may be used ; but where there is a dense interlacing mass of 

 branches, or the divaricating growth-form plays a notable part, the sug- 

 gestive term "scrub" may be applied. These names for the various 

 classes of shrubland, as explained farther on, differ in part from those used 

 by L. Cockayne in his previous writings. Obviously, between all the 

 classes intermediate forms must occur. 



Shrubland is generally of a more xerophytic character than forest, but 

 its habitats differ so greatly in this regard that some associations are dis- 

 tinctly mesophytic, while others are strongly xerophytic. Of course, it is 

 impossible without physiological, anatomical, cultural, and ecological in- 

 vestigation to declare with confidence that any plant is either a xerophyte 

 or a mesophyte. But, undoubtedly, when it is seen that examples of one 

 and the same true-breeding entity assume different growth-forms under 

 mesophytic and xerophytic conditions, and that these growth-forms ap- 



